The alignment of liquid crystals, such as required for operation of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), can be influenced by the walls of the container holding the liquid crystals. Currently available LCDs may have thin polymer films that cover the side of the glass substrate in contact with the liquid crystal, which influence the orientation of the liquid crystals. The direction of the polymer chains in these films can be defined by rubbing the surface with a velvet-like cloth.
This process introduces debris, making it more difficult to maintain the clean room environment required for making the LCDs. Rubbing can also leave streaks and produce electrostatic charge, which degrade image quality. A contact-free, or minimal contact process would provide a higher quality product and may significantly reduce costs associated with maintaining the clean room environment.
It has been found that liquid crystals can be aligned on polymer films or amorphous solids when the surface is exposed to an ion beam. The ion beam exposure alters the optical properties of the polymer film or amorphous solid so as to facilitate the alignment of the liquid crystals. A large variety of industrial applications, such as fiber optics manufacturing and thin film processing, may also benefit from the altered or enhanced optical properties of such polymer films and amorphous solids.
The polymer films that may be used in these applications normally can be produced in a continuous production process. It would be advantageous to provide an ion beam exposure system and method, which can align the polymeric chains of such films during production of the polymer film.
In the production of typical LCDs, i.e., those on substrates about 1 m2 or less, the substrates can be mounted on a moving stage within an ion beam fixture and linearly scanned beneath the ion source in a batch processing mode. For larger substrates, it may be impractical to place the substrate within the ion beam fixture. Thus, there is a further need to provide a system and method for ion beam exposure for larger substrates.